THE CAMERA
In the 1920s it was not so common was for a settler to be a photographer. Having a camera for personal use at the beginning of the twentieth century was expensive and not easily transportable. Émile took a lot of pictures of his daily life. The photographic images are a gift as an archival material, a witness of the past, and a sign of power. It performs power as much as it witnesses it. Émile took lands and captured images, activating 'the power of the shutter to shape the territorial imagination'4.Even after independence, his photographic memories persist, erasing the lived realities of those who were colonised. In the context of settler colonialism, paying attention to vernacular photography is a way to uncover the violence that is latent in everyday practices.
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The Journal of Art & Ecology published by MA Art & Ecology, Goldsmiths, University of London

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